Oh, that is the wonder of salvation. We get to stand before our God. One day there will be a place where we all get to go and stand in His presence. If you're saved, if you're saved, you'll stand in heaven. He will judge us clean. He will judge us not guilty and we will get to be with Him forever. What a wonderful day that is. If you don't know that you're on your way there, please let me again implore you this morning, make sure you know that before you leave today. If you have your Bibles, if you turn to Isaiah chapter 59 this morning, Isaiah 59, I'm excited, I get the privilege to preach out of two of my favorite verses in the Bible. And so I love these two verses and I cite them often, quote them often, misquote them probably more often, because I'm human and that's what I do. So anyway, Isaiah 59, one and two is what we are going to study this morning. But as a way of introduction, We have our spiritual recharge conference this week, and as Brother Brian said, I'm very excited about it. I know he's excited about it. I hope you're excited about it. But the truth is, it's a conference we need. Everybody needs this conference. As Christians, we are still people, right? It's not like we get saved and we become like superheroes who don't sin anymore, right? No, that's not us. We look at, you know, Peter, James, John, Andrew. We look at all of the different characters in the Bible, the different people we see in the Bible, and they were some powerful men of God. We look at Jonah, the great revival he saw, but what did he have to do? Cower three days and three nights in the belly of a well first. Right, I mean, we are fallible, we are weak individuals, and as we live from day to day, it's easy to be influenced by sin, but not just influenced, we're also desensitized to sin. Right, I mean, if you watch the television, and I caution you in watching television, right, they try to desensitize you to everything, from the commercials to the shows, they're instituting and inserting innuendos and various different types of things, trying to get you to think in a different way. and you go to work and you hear certain types of speaking and you observe certain types of behavior, and it's easy to get deadened to how vile that is to God. And we eventually come, as we become more desensitized to it, we may even allow some sin into our lives. And often this happens without us even really noticing. Our thought life starts to change perhaps, the way we think about things shifts, our language might change. And it happens from the strongest and the most knowledgeable to the weakest and least educated Christian. We're all tempted to sin, every one of us. Every type of Christian, and in fact, very likely, every Christian has fallen into sin. We're weak. I traveled, most of you know, I worked for the Christian Law Association for a while. I am an attorney, and there I had the privilege of just helping Christians and churches. And I worked with a lot of churches in a lot of states, helping them out of legal troubles that typically stemmed from some sort of awful sin in various people in the church, from the layman all the way up to the pastor. And in most cases, a year before this awful situation touched a church, you would see that man or that woman, and you would think, man, what a godly person. And often that person would have been in a very good spiritual position just a year before their sin. And yet, within a relatively short amount of time, temptation came in, whether it's covetousness or pride or lust or a combination thereof, and the person did something that neither they nor anyone else ever thought they would do. And a person, be it a spiritual giant pastoring a very large church, which I saw happen, they can fall, just as can a deacon. I saw a man in charge of a very large, well-known Christian ministry that has probably millions of followers fall. And a year before, everybody'd be like, no, never. And I've seen it happen to faithful deacons and Sunday school teachers and all sorts of situations. And if that can happen to them, it can happen to any one of us. Just living from day to day wears us down. When you're not in this church house where we are together, iron sharpening iron, we're trying to strengthen each other, when you step out of the walls of the church, something is attacking you. Satan's working, whether it's by what you listen to, what you see, what you hear, what you're around, where you go to work, whatever you are exposed to is tempting you, is trying you, is bringing you to the point of, in Satan's desire, complete depletion so that you'll just give in. And this is why the Lord leads us to go to church on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights and Wednesdays, because we need to be strengthened. We need to help each other. We need to lift each other up. But even with that, if a person is not living the proper spiritual regimen, right? I mean, we got to work out to stay in shape, right? Or we need to eat right to stay in shape. There's a spiritual regimen. We need to not only be in church Sunday morning, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights. We also need to be in our Bible. We need to be praying and we need to do these things. And without that, it's really easy to become weak and more prone to sin. And the point of the Spiritual Recharge Conference is to help us to set aside some time where we just focus on, okay, where am I spiritually? And this needs to be an exercise we engage in from time to time. And as a church, we have this conference. It's a Spiritual Recharge Conference, Conference where we're praying for revival within the church. Because if there's revival in the church, there will be an awakening outside of the church, right? The revival is the recharge of Christians, us seeing that we may be a little more dead to ourselves, and we're gonna get to this in a few minutes in our text, but we wake up to live more like Christ, and as we do that, we become that light in this city, and then the city can see the light, and they come to Christ, and they go from a true spiritually dead state to a state of salvation when they put their faith in him, and it begins to spread. And so times like this spiritual recharge conference are important. Christians, whether they are new or old, young or aged, strong or weak, men or women, it doesn't matter. We are all subject to temptations. There's a good chance that many of us have sin in our life. And it's not uncommon that we need to be strengthened. And so as we head into this next week, I'm gonna preach a message here out of Isaiah chapter 59 verses one and two. If you'll stand at this time, we're gonna read these verses together. I'm gonna preach about revival in a way that we don't typically think of it, but we're going to see some very good indications in these two verses about the need for revival and what it takes to be revived. And so this morning, we're just gonna focus on these first two verses in Isaiah 59. chapter 59. It says this, Let's pray. I thank you for your word. I thank you for this text. I thank you that you would be so very kind as to revive us when we do step away from you, Lord God. And Lord, I ask that you'd help each one of us to be sensitive to your word this morning. Help me to speak that which you'd have me to and nothing else. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please be seated. Three points this morning. First one is this, signs you are alive. Signs you are alive. As you read these verses, the thing that stands out to me is verse one. I love Isaiah 59 verse one. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear. What a wonderful God we serve, right? Just read those verses. His hand is not short, and there's nothing he can't reach to. There's no power that he does not have. It can always save. It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what you are into. You could be in the worst situation in the world, and God's hand is not short, and it can always, always, always save. And then on the other side of that, he says, my ear is not heavy. It doesn't matter where you are. When you cry out to God, it's never too busy. He's never so busy that he can't hear you. You never whisper so softly that he cannot perceive what you are saying. God always hears. He always hears and He can always work. And Isaiah is reminding us this morning, in the first place, that God's abilities are never diminished. God who created the world, right? Nothing was. We're like, nothing was, there was no earth, but there was no universe. There was just nothing. And God created everything by a word. And He created the world with simple words, And then he goes on to do these marvelous things in the world, right? I mean, he creates everything that we see. He creates the things we don't see, like the wind. And he does all of these just phenomenal things, right? We think about the human body and the cellular structure and all the various things that go into a body. And it's just amazing to see how they all work together. And scientists have been studying it forever, and they still can't figure out what some of the things do, right? And it just shows you the vast power of God. And he creates everything, but then he begins to work in his world, demonstrating his power. I love thinking about the 10 plagues that he puts on Egypt, but just as marvelous is him parting the Red Sea for his people to go across, right? Likely 1.5 million people cross the sea on dry ground. That's incredible. I mean, you think about dry ground, like dry ground hard enough to get their chariots and their horses and their donkeys and everything else across, right? They were not sinking in. This was dry ground that he created. And God who did that, and the same God who calls the sun to stand still on a day when Joshua was in battle, and he's like, Lord, I'd like to kill a few more of them. Would you please make the sun stand still? And it does, right? I mean, this isn't like just a fairytale. God makes the sun stand still for a full extra day, and they go about killing all of their enemies. That's the power of God. And Isaiah is telling us here, God who has all of this power, his hand's still not short. He is no less powerful today than He was then. God who has always had all power still has all power. The God who healed the lepers, who healed the blind, who healed the lame, who healed the deaf, He can do that today. What was true in Isaiah's day is true today. Hebrews 13, 8 says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. The God of all power still has all power. Jesus Christ, our God, is unchanging, and anything He has done, He can still do, because He is still God, and He still has all power. And what the text is trying to tell us this morning is this, if you are alive and in Him, if you are a Christian, you can experience His full power in your life. That's what is not explicit, I suppose, in this text because as it flows along with verse number two, you see that people are not receiving it. But verse one is very much a picture of the fact that God wants to hear you. God wants to answer your prayers. And He does. One of the great things we know about God is that He loves us. That's why he created us. He created us to love us. He created us to have a relationship with him. He created us to worship him. And he loves us, and in his love, he goes well beyond what we deserve. That was demonstrated in the first place when he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins. And there's no greater love that could be shown. To send his son away from his glory that he deserved, to live among men in a sinful world, to experience the temptations and trials and pain and suffering that we endure, only we endure it because we deserve it. And he sent his son to do that for us. And that shows his love. But his love goes much further. I love Matthew chapter 21 and verses 21 and 22. It says this, Jesus answered and said unto them, verily I say unto you, if ye have faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. All things whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive." What a promise from God. Right again, this is the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who made the sun to stand still, the God who has done everything to create this world, to give us life and bless us in so many ways. And we studied much of this promise last week in Isaiah and chapter 58, but there's more. As we move into this chapter, we read again of its implications in our lives. It's not just the simple things that we kind of saw in turn last week. Now he's going on and he's saying, my hand's not shortened. There's nothing I cannot do. And the implication is if we are saved and serving God, again, if we are saved and serving God, we can and should expect that when we talk to God, he hears and answers our prayers. Or did you get that? When you are saved and if you are serving God appropriately, we can and should expect that God hears our prayers and that he will answer our prayers. There should be great confidence that when you pray, God is hearing you. And then there should be answers to prayers that you see in your life. This doesn't mean you're gonna get everything you pray for, but it means God will answer every prayer you have, though sometimes it's a no, but there's also gonna be a lot of yeses along the way. I mean, just think about some of the things God has done for you if you are praying. If you are saved and serving God, you should know He's hearing and you should see Him answering prayers. Say it another way to go along with what we're talking about. If you are spiritually alive, God works. Right, if you are spiritually alive, meaning that you are saved, you are out of sin, and you are serving God in the right way according to his word, God works. Yeah, we live in a sin-cursed world, and we know trials and hard times are still gonna come, and we will still experience pain and sorrow, but God still works. He hasn't promised us a perfect life, but he has promised us to always be part of your life. Hebrews 13, five, even six says this, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Those who are saved, those who are spiritually alive, those who are serving and living in righteousness, experience what it means to be spiritually alive. God is my helper. God is always with me. God is part of my life. He is always hearing me. He is helping me. He is benefiting me in a great many ways. And so we start to see, first of all, In this thing of revival, in regards to Christians, we see a implicit understanding that there's a sign you are alive. And the sign that you are alive is that you know God is hearing you and that he is answering your prayers. We're talking to saved people right now. If you are a saved individual, and we're going to get to what more God breaks down into being truly spiritually alive versus almost dead as a Christian here a minute, but speaking to Christians, if you are a Christian, you should have an indication, you do have an indication if you are spiritually where God wants you to be, if you're spiritually alive, if God is hearing your prayers and God is answering them. Does that make sense to everybody? Now think about a human, right? We have several nurses in our assembly here today. I thought about calling one of them up to ask them some questions, but I won't do that. I'll leave them alone this morning, I suppose. And they can correct me if I'm wrong. Just raise your hand, Brother Dave or Miss Sherry or something if I mess something up or somebody else. All right, so as a human, there are certain things that are indicative of your health, right? Number one, you have to have a pulse. Brother Dave, would you agree if there's no pulse, you're probably not doing well? All right, he agrees with that, okay? So no pulse. you're not long with this world, okay? Like, you got a couple minutes, what, maybe three or four minutes, and then we're gonna start seeing some brain problems, and after that, not much longer, and we're gonna have some very severe problems, and then there's no bringing you back much longer, okay? And so, that's, number one, you gotta have a pulse. That's an indicator of your health. Number two, your heart rate is an indicator of your health, right? So it could be too high or too low, and that could be indicative of your health. I had a procedure a couple weeks ago, and my heart rate's like 48. And they're like, is your heart rate normally 48? Yes. Leave me alone, OK? I don't know. I don't know if that was good or bad. She thought it was a bad thing. I thought it was a good thing. I was proud of my number. So anyway, don't tell me if I'm dying, guys, OK? Just let me be in ignorance. All right, number three, your blood pressure. High blood pressure, bad. Low blood pressure, bad. I mean, that's a pretty good indication. Yeah, OK. And then number four, I'm not going any deeper than this because, you know, well, I'm not a medical doctor. So anyway. Number four, your temperature. Pretty good indicator if something's really bad, right? Somebody comes in with like a 103 fever, we're thinking maybe there's an issue with this person. And I'm sure there's a lot of other things, and we can think of like oxygen saturation and probably some other things, but these are pretty basic things. And if something is off with one of these, then the doctor's probably gonna start asking you some questions really quickly. What's going on? We gotta figure this out. You're probably asking yourself something. Why do I feel like this? You get dizzy when you stand up. Maybe your blood pressure's off. You're in here on this cool Sunday morning where I like to keep the auditorium as freezing as possible and you're hot right now, there's probably an issue with you. You might have a fever if you're sweating bullets right now. And you see those things and there's indicators, there's signs that you are alive and healthy. Does that make sense? There's signs that you are alive and healthy. Healthy, and the same is true of your spiritual life. There are things that are signs that you are alive and healthy as a Christian. And here we see that you should have the confidence to know that your prayers are being heard, and you should see answers to your prayers. Again, that doesn't mean every prayer is gonna be answered exactly as you want, but I am saying you should have confidence right now as you are praying God hears your prayers, and you should see your prayers being answered. It's a sign, it's a sign that we are spiritually healthy. I suppose on a more superficial level, we could probably compare to these things, right? Knowing that God hears my prayer, it might be like my pulse, and my blood pressure might be the things that are being answered. And so you kind of can feel it, right? And it's a very good indicator of where you are as a Christian. Maybe I should back that up one. Maybe your pulse is you are praying, Your blood pressure is you knowing God hears, and maybe number three, your heart rate is then God answering prayers, or something along those lines. But you see, there's signs about your health in these verses. And as Christians, we stand before God, we know this, we stand before God, and we can go boldly before the throne of grace. If you're saved in here, you can boldly go to God and you can pray about anything. And you can experience His goodness and you know His love. And we may say, as that verse says, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. And so there's this great confidence that I am healthy when I have the proper prayer life. When I know that God is answering my prayers, I can say, I know God is my helper. I won't fear what man will do unto me, right? Because I'm experiencing everything in Isaiah 59.1. When I know I have that right relationship with God, it's good, and I don't worry about anything. Because my Father is there, and my Father is the God of all the universe, and he created everything, and when I pray unto him, I can just say, I'm not worried because he is my helper, and I don't need to worry about anything else, that's all I need. When you are alive in Christ, you know it because life is as it was meant to be when you got saved. You can live with joy, you can live with confidence in every situation because you know simply this, if I look to God, he will guide me into his path and everything will be well. And so there's a sign, there's a sign of life. The sign of life is you are praying and God is hearing your prayers and he is answering your prayers. The second thing is this, symptoms that indicate you need revival. I thought about being signs you are dead, but we'll just go with symptoms you need that indicate you need revival. So, when we speak of being spiritually alive today, today as we're speaking about this, we're not talking about it in terms of being lost and saved. There is an indication of that in the Bible. A person who has never called upon the name of Jesus Christ is truly spiritually dead. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we see there, there is a spiritual death. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you have never seen your sin for what it is, called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, then you are spiritually dead before God. There is no relationship at all. John 3.18 says it like this, but he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And so, both of these verses indicate that as humans, we are born in sin. Unless we do something, we will remain in our sins, and therein we are dead to God. And so while you are physically alive from the moment you are birthed, you are also spiritually dead to God, which means we have no part in Him. And He will judge us guilty for all of our sins, and He will condemn us to eternal suffering. And if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are spiritually dead this morning. And he'll hear none of your prayers. You don't have this promise of Isaiah 59.1, right? The only prayer that God will hear of yours is a prayer of repentance. The only prayer he hears when we are dead in our trespasses and sins is the prayer that says, God, I recognize that I'm a sinner and there's nothing that I can do to get out of it. So I plead the blood of Jesus Christ. Will you save me through what your son did? And at that moment, he will save you. When there is faith and it works out in a confession, God will save you. And then you become His. And then you become subject to all the promises of God, including Isaiah 59.1, where He says His hand is not shortened that He cannot save you, nor is it your heavy, nor is it your heavy that He cannot hear. He begins hearing all of your prayers. But in terms of revival, we see a second type of picture of spiritual death. But it's not truly being dead. Again, it's revived. So you were once fully alive in God, but it would be like a person being brought into a hospital who is kind of on the verge of death. right? You think of a severe car accident, a gunshot wound, whatever the case is, somebody's rushed into the ER and they need to be revived, right? I mean, perhaps they are on the verge right there, they are going out and coming back, or whatever the case may be, they need to be revived so that they can get back to a place of physical health. And that's what we are seeing in our text today, is that though a person may be saved, they may be living as though they are spiritually dead. living like they did before they were saved, right? So the soul, the spirit is saved, it is sure in God, it is confirmed, but at the same time, they have fallen away from living for God the way that they were supposed to. So it doesn't mean they are condemned to hell, but it's a picture and a word that is used to describe a condition of Christians who are out of God's will and who are not enjoying life as God intends to provide it. And so we see this indication throughout the Bible. Just a couple of chapters earlier in Isaiah chapter 57, Isaiah 57, 15 says this, For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. And then what does he say? To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. So he's, and we see this in some other places in Jeremiah and elsewhere, there is a type of person that God, though he is holy, says he still needs to revive them, right? So God is holy, he is the high and lofty one, he inhabits eternity, he's dwelling in this holy place, but there are some who have come to them and they need now to see that there's a problem. They need revived. Again, that word revived means to make alive again. And so there are Christians out here who need to be made alive again. Not that we are saved a second time, that's not what it's saying. It's saying that we need to be brought back to where we should be. Here God is speaking to those who are His. And though they are saved, God makes clear that they are nearly dead when He says they need to be revived. Why do they need revived? Because they are lifted up in pride and conceit, right? It says they need to be revived in a spirit of humility and the heart of the contrite ones, right? He's looking for people to come back to them in humility, indicating that pride is the root cause of their sin. It lifted them up against God, and now they're behaving in a way that demonstrates that they believe in their mind they are equal to God by choosing to do what they want and live as they want rather than as God has decided. So now back to our text, in regards to the effects of pride and the need for revival that we see in Isaiah 57, 15, once we get past verse two of our text, verse three, mainly through the rest of chapter 59, is all about just listing sins of people. Right, and these are the things we'd be lifted up in pride in when we fall into sin. And we could read through them, your hands are defiled with blood and fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongues have muttered perverseness, none calleth for justice, and it goes on and on and on and on. And yes, it switches back and it talks about God sending his righteousness and other such things, but by and large, this text speaks of sin. It's almost a coalition of all the sin that is spoken of prior to Isaiah 59 throughout the whole book as he addresses sin after sin after sin after sin. The difficulty with us as human beings, though, is that when we read specific sins, many times we struggle identifying with that sin, right? So there's a specific type of sin and, you know, it's addressed, pastor preaches on it, you read about it in your Bible, and we read in it, and we just kind of read over it. Your lips have spoken lies. Well, have you done that this week? Right, I mean, and that's a very real question. Have you lied this week? And most of us probably have exaggerated the truth, have told a lie, told a half-truth to get ahead, to get a better deal, right? You're at the car dealership, I can't really afford that. You know you can afford that, that's a lie. Don't say that, just say, look, I'm not paying that. And we do, we lie about all sorts of things, and we're like, oh, but it was a little lie, and everybody, that doesn't make it right. God says thou shalt not bear false witness. A lie is a lie, it doesn't matter how you justify it, it's wrong. And oftentimes, when sin is addressed to us in such direct terms, we are really good at doing two things. And number one is being blind to the sin, and number two is justifying the sin. We're really good at not seeing the sin in our lives. You think about things that people do, perhaps that you do, and everyone in here sees it. There's a lot of people in here that, again, not naming any names or saying anything, but just looking around. Some people live in a way where we can identify sin in your life. Not trying to judge you. We're not criticizing you for it. It's just apparent, right? It just is. There's other people who have sin that you have sin in your life and we know nothing about it because it's a different type of sin or you're better at hiding it. And among such people, Everyone probably has an intellectual knowledge of that sin in their life. Has an intellectual knowledge that that is sin. And yet, there is something within us that for whatever reason causes us to not see the sin. Right? It happens. And then there are things that you do that you justify. I always use my kids as an example for this. Samuel, why did you do this? Reagan, dot, dot, dot, right? Why did you do this? Because this. No, wrong is wrong. You don't get to choose what's right and wrong because you can attribute the reason you did it to someone else. No, your part in it's still your part in it. You can sin for whatever reason you want. I don't do this because, because what? The Bible says what's right and what's wrong. Either you choose to do it or you choose not to do it. It's your choice. Nobody makes you sin, yet you can justify it all you want. I sin because my husband does this. I sin because my wife's too lippy, right? I sin because, not mine, yours maybe. I sin because I'm hungry. I sin because I didn't have enough sleep last night. I can be mean to you. I can be grumpy today because I didn't get enough sleep last night. No, there's no justification for it. The Bible says be kind one to another. That's it, it's just God's word, yes or no. Are you doing it? And yet we are really, really good at being blind to our own sin. When I preach, I preach on whatever the text reveals, and you know, you know what sin is in people's lives a lot of times, and you try not to preach at a person, but you can't help but think, man, I hope this person might get right. It's just the truth. We're humans, right? And I mean, we have things that we can't forget. I'm not God. I can't, you know, separate my thoughts like that. But, you know, you know things that are going on in people's lives and you preach on it and it's always awkward because you like know that person has it and you're like, please let them get right, Lord, but I don't want to preach at them and such things like that. And oftentimes they don't hear it. And oftentimes they don't get right. But I've experienced as a pastor and as a youth pastor, I know my duty is to help people to see sin in their lives. So I've experimented with different things of trying to get people to see their sin in a very direct way. I've taken people out to lunch or out to different meals and I've had very pointed conversations with them. Like I knew different guys wanted to be involved in different ways in the church, teach or have a different ministry. And I just, look, these are the qualifications and you're not doing this. Yeah, but I think I should get the tea. Okay, listen, let me say this again. These are the qualifications. These qualifications are what the Bible says, and the Bible says we are supposed to do this. You're not doing this. You're not qualified to be an example over a Sunday school class. I can't put somebody in a teaching position who doesn't come Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday nights because the Bible says we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. So you're not doing that. I'm not going to set you up in a position of an example in the church. Why? Because you're not doing what the Bible says. A child needs to be able to look at you and say, I can follow them. Follow me as I follow Christ. That's what every teacher in this church should be able to say. Follow me as I follow my Lord. And if not, then you don't qualify. I've had that very pointed conversation with people, and they're just like, I just don't see it, pastor. And you're just like, I don't get it. I've tried giving people illustrations and like, okay, let's compare this to this. Teens, I've never done this with an adult, but I don't know, may happen at some point. I went to them and said, look, you are doing this and this is sin. What do you mean, Brother Rusty? Okay, this is what the Bible says, and then we're gonna walk through verses right now. Do you agree with this? Yes. Okay, turn to the next one. Do you agree with this? Yes. Okay, turn to the next one. Do you agree with this? Yes. That's sin. That's what you're doing. Do you really think it's wrong? Do you really think it's wrong? Yes! What? How can we be so blind? And yet we are, and it seems so silly, but that's an actual example. And it's happened, I can think of, at least two times for sure with teens, and probably more like 12 or 15. I mean, two teens that like, multiple examples are coming to me of those two teens. But it's just a picture of who we are. We're really good at not seeing the sin that is in our lives. So in our text in chapter 59, which is about sin, more than about Really anything else, right? Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is it ear-heavy, neither is it ear-heavy that it cannot hear. But what does it say? But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face that he will not hear. And so what do we see here? We see that though people cannot see the list that starts in verse 3 down through the rest of the text, that they are spiritually in need of revival, he says, let me give you a different indicator that something is off. And that indicator is your prayer life. Do you want to know if you need revival? Look at your prayers and then look at whether or not they are being answered. Better yet, look at your prayers and look at and consider whether or not you think God is even hearing your prayers right now. Did you get that? There's a two-fold test that you can use to gauge your spiritual state right now. Number one, is God answering your prayers? I haven't seen a prayer answered in a long time. Well, maybe that should lead you to question number two. Do you even believe God is answering your prayers right now? Because we can go a while without receiving an answer to prayer. We see David pleading that in various places because God does work in his timing and God does test us and God does try us. But at the same time, he was confident that God was hearing his prayers. But when we're not seeing our prayers answered, and we have no confidence that He's hearing us, there's a spiritual problem in your life. You're in need of revival. Because God's hand is never shortened, and His ear is never heavy. He can always hear, and He can always answer your prayers. And if you are faithfully praying to Him in the way that you should, then you should know He's hearing, and you should see His answers. And so those symptoms that you need revival are that you're not seeing any prayers answered, and that you don't even believe that God is hearing your prayers. Leads us to the third point, the solution for revival. The solution for revival. If your prayers are not being answered, if they are not even being heard, if you are not confident in that, then God says, consider this, that He is still all-powerful, He is still able to hear everything, and it's not him that's falling short. Right, I mean, that's the overall tenor of this text, is God is saying, my hand is not shortened that I cannot save, neither is my ear heavy that I cannot hear. It's not me God is saying, it's you. And what's wrong with you? Your iniquities and your sins are separating you from him. And he says, I'm not hearing your prayers. Why? Because you have sin in your life. He is God. You went to him and you said, I plead the blood of Jesus Christ. I want to go to you. I want saved. I want forgiven of my sins. And now look at you. You went right back to where you were. And if you want that relationship with me, get it out. Get the sin out. The good news within these two verses is that he gives the solution to our problem, and the solution is really simple. Change. Right? I want you to hear my prayers, God. I want you to answer my prayers, God, and there's nothing there. There's a problem, there's sin in your life. Change. He's not rejecting you. Just get it right. Whatever you are doing, whatever the issue is in your life, just fix it. You need revival, what do you have to do? You must change. If you want to change, what do you need to do? Do it. I mean, we make this so complicated sometimes. Just quit. Well, people are gonna think I'm weird. Well, be weird because you'll have God on your side. And if God is for you, it doesn't matter who's against you. Just change, just do it. Sometimes though, the problem is we are so hard and so callous towards sin and evil that we really don't even know what the sin is. And that's where we get into a problem. But the Bible provides a solution. Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24 says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Job 13 verses 23 and 24 says this, How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin. Wherefore, hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy. If you don't see it, but you know you're there because you're not having any of your prayers answered, you're not sure that God's even hearing you, then just ask him to help. He's not hearing your prayers, but if you say, God, look, I understand I'm in sin right now. You've showed it to me. You've given me the symptoms, and I see that I'm sick right now. I see that it's not good in me. Just start begging God to show you the sin. Ask him. That's what David did. That's what Job does. If you see the sins, just ask God to help. Bring your request before Him so that you may confess it and forsake it. James 4, 8 expresses what our desire should be. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. I believe that every believer wants this type of relationship with God. We want to be alive. I don't think anybody wants, as a Christian, to be spiritually dead. Right, I'm saved, I wanna have a relationship with God, I want to know that he's hearing my prayers, I want to see him answer my prayers. We want to be clean before God. I don't think there's many Christians that are like, yeah, I really want to be a sinner. We just become blind to it, but we want to be clean before him, we want to be pure before God, we want to please God, but simply through the ordinary happenings of life, through being in a world where sin is accepted and promoted, and we just get wore down. And it creeps in and it's not anything to be ashamed of in that we shouldn't ask for help. It's something to be ashamed of in that we've displeased God, but we need to realize it and recognize it and get it right. Again, we often begin to sin and stray. We may not even see it for a while, but this morning there's evidence, right? There's signs that you're healthy or there's some symptoms that may indicate that you're not. It's good to be alive in Christ. There's nothing better. To be able to say, I know God is on my side, and he's got this. His hand isn't shortened. No, I serve God, and he's gonna intervene in this situation, and if he doesn't, he's gonna help me through it. That's a wonderful way to live. I know his ear is never heavy. I know it's never too busy. I know that everything I say goes before him, and I know that he's going to work. That is how I want to live as a Christian. That's how we should all live and it's a wonderful way to live. We know that we always have a shoulder to cry on. We always have a hope for every need. We have the power of God that we can seek in any situations. But sometimes because of my actions, it's gone. But we can have it back. We become such that we are dead and we're in need of revival. This week we have an opportunity to be spiritually revived. Right now you have an opportunity to be spiritually revived. If you know your sin right now, in just a moment we're gonna have a time of invitation. Would you bring that to the altar and confess that before God? This week though, I challenge you, ask God to reveal any sin in your life. We're gonna have a week where Brother Ables comes in on Wednesday and he's gonna preach Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then all day Sunday. Be here every service. Ask God to just speak to you. Right, beg him. It may have been a while he's heard a prayer because it's been a while since you've been right with him, but start asking him now, God, would you speak to me? And then show him you mean it by coming to church every night. Think about Daniel. Daniel is praying for like three weeks, eating only meat that is unpleasant, I think it says, however it words it. And he's eating just, he's got this fast going on for three weeks. Three weeks before he gets an answer. Three weeks of showing God that, yes, this is real to me. If you want revival, you gotta show it's real to God. You can't just come to this altar once and say, God, I want revival right now, and then not come to church tonight, not come next Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That's insincere to God. It's insincere as it comes out of you, because you're not showing anything that you really intend to do. It's just like looking to God like a genie. God, would you give me this right now? I hope I get it, and if not, oh well. No, do you want what God has? This week you have an opportunity for spiritual revival to live once again.